COVID-19: Reflections of an Academician from India

It first hit me on the first week of March 2020. After a long weekend off for celebrating Holi, the classes were resumed. The campus is expected to have that vibrance back in it and was about to celebrate one year of its existence and had undergone many changes over the period. The outbreak of a virus in the nearby country was considered to be a distant phenomenon which was not supposed to have a direct impact on us. Post the Holi break, during which majority of the students have travelled to their hometown, were back and it might raise the chances of individuals exposed to the microbe, while they travelled. The classrooms had students wearing masks and apprehensions could be seen on the faces of the rest. The events which were to be organized by the departments were cancelled to reduce the chances of transmission of the pandemic. The coffee shop where I stopped for the daily quota of caffeine was comparatively empty and the medical room was equipped with masks, gloves along with hand sanitizers and the news on the short supply of such medical items were spread throughout the country towards the second and third week of March. The reality of not having enough infrared thermometer in supply in the entire region hit hard but later we had that in our stock soon. Any human being entering the campus was tested for temperature using the infrared thermometers and were given hand sanitizers. All the floor and cleaning staff were given an awareness session by the head nurse as they have more direct exposure towards the microbes. Our international conference and other public with large gatherings were either moved to online platforms or postponed for on a further date. On March 19, 2020, the University Grants Commission announced that all the higher educational institutions must be closed indefinitely and also the exams should be postponed. COVID‐19 radically transformed our fraternity, and the new realities began dawning on our existing paradigm of knowledge transfer.

When institutions identified the gap of knowledge exchange, thus exploring a way to manage our COVID‐19 crisis, we need to survive, taking our legacy forward by overcoming crisis and march on. We as faculty were learning on the go and preparing as we speak. There were many hindrances faced by the entire stakeholders of education- students, parents, instructors and those who run the institution as well. In a country, which still relies on the internet with 2G speed in many places were the primary one amongst them. Also, there were widespread criticisms against faculties across the country indicating the least number of faculties who are acquainted with the online mode of teaching-learning methodology. Initial turbulences during the phase also included blending the topic and pedagogy with the right tool and acquainting with the selected tool to tap the learning capacity of students who are of different calibre. Did we prove them wrong? Did we do justice to our profession? Over the past two months, the academicians have used a variety of communication medium, from SMS to Whatsapp notes, from Google classroom to Zoom sessions, and from Google meet to CISCO Webex, to name a few among them. We introduced ourselves to various tools to ensure that the same classroom experience is brought into the virtual space as well. The classroom activities like quizzes, engagement questions in between the lectures, whiteboards, breakout sessions to integrate group discussions, polling were done to bring the experience real-time. The classes were scheduled on the usual basis, which the students might find difficult to adapt to initially but the sacrifices on the either parts in terms of time spent for preparation and clearing of the doubts, resulted in a win-win situations for the stakeholders of academia. The agreeable mindset of the students was another crucial aspect which contributed success of the highly potential initiative.

Learning to identify and balance what is best for my students, my institution, and myself stays as a longstanding challenge. When I prepare for an online lecture, I question myself on what should be shared to my students during the session as I do for a physical session, but integrating the technology to and engaging the so-called individuals with short concentration span required high intensity planning. This was the challenge I faced during the four lockdowns. Unfortunately, COVID‐19 stays in the foreseeable future and such mode of exchanging knowledge must continue. Four months ago, I was starting to feel like my academic career which is about to complete one year had conquered its initial challenges.  Two months ago, I gave my first online classes through via Google Meet. Sure, I channelled the delivery of the content, but was unable to experience the event. I am curious to see how we will cope up on a long run. With many things remain mystery, it is apparent this isn’t done on a short-term basis, and our work is to work to adapt and adapt to improve.